During manufacture of an electric motor armature, partially manufactured assemblies are often conveyed by a conveyor from one manufacturing station to the next. Ordinarily, because the basic armature construction uses generally symmetrical parts, such as round armature shafts, cylindrical cores, and cylindrical commutators, there is no need to orient the partially manufactured armatures on the pallets that carry them. However, there are occasions in which it would be useful to control the rotational orientation of armature shafts relative to pallets so that their rotational orientation may be maintained as the parts move from one manufacturing machine to the next.